Findings

Tough Course

Urban high school students who take a heavy course load in core
academic subjects do better on the ACT college-entrance exam than those
who don't but not nearly as well as students nationally who carry a
similar load, a new study by the Council of the Great City Schools and
ACT Inc. shows.

The analysis looked at more than 55,300 students from the class of
1997 who took the ACT in the 50 large urban systems represented by the
Washington, D.C.-based council. Overall, the urban districts posted an
average composite score of 18.7, compared with a national average of
21. ACT exams are scored on a scale of 1 through 36. Composite scores
represent a district average across four subjects: math, English,
reading, and science.

Urban students who took a sequence of core college-prep courses
trailed the national average by 40 percent less than their urban peers
who did not pursue such a course load. In English, for example, urban
students with core courses in English, math, social studies, and
science posted an average score of 19, compared with 16.4 by those with
less-demanding preparation. The national average was 20.4. "It is clear
from this analysis that rigorous course-taking can substantially close
achievement gaps between ACT test-takers in poor urban schools and
students nationally," the report says. "But course-taking alone cannot
eliminate the gaps." Some national testing experts challenged the
conclusions, cautioning that tougher classes may not be the reason for
the higher scores. "What you can't tell when you look at those
correlations only is how much is due to the actual content of the
courses adding to student learning versus the self-selection of
more-able students into those courses," observes Lorrie Shepard,
interim dean of education at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Michael Casserly, the council's executive director, says the
analysis sought to determine the extent to which taking tougher courses
could close the achievement gap between urban and other students.
"We've got an ever-moving bar we're trying to jump, and the tougher
course-taking will help us part of the way over," he says. "But it's
not going to do all the magical things that have been suggested by
some."

Class Size

Are smaller classes better when it comes to learning? Two
preliminary studies on class-reduction efforts in Wisconsin and
California offer slightly different views on the perennial issue.

Students in a Wisconsin program designed to help low achievers did
better on standardized tests than those in larger classes that weren't
affiliated with the program, researchers from the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee found. The program, called Student Achievement
Guarantee in Education, or SAGE, requires schools to reduce to 15 the
number of K-3 pupils per teacher, upgrade curricula, provide activities
and services before and after school, and devise
professional-development plans for educators.

The researchers gave math and reading tests to students in the
program during the 1996-97 school year and then compared the results
with those from students not in the program. Though both groups started
with similar scores, the SAGE students outscored their counterparts at
the end of the year. The researchers don't yet know whether the gains
will last or whether they resulted entirely from smaller classes or
some other aspect of the program. But project researcher Alex Molnar
has a pretty good idea. "I think what we're seeing is the class-size
effect," he says.

The California study does not yet have achievement data. Instead, it
surveys staff members in 89 school districts on the effect of the
state's effort to reduce class sizes, which began with grades 1-3 in
1996-97 and expanded to 4th grade this year. So far, the survey
concludes, the $1.5 billion program has resulted in widespread
shortages of classrooms and qualified teachers. And although most
teachers say the smaller classes are improving education, almost a
third say they have not altered their teaching to take advantage of the
smaller settings. California Policy Analysis in Education, a nonprofit,
Berkeley-based group, is leading a consortium of six research
organizations studying the class-size initiative.

The Achievement Gap

Black students make greater intellectual gains in college than white
students do, according to a soon-to-be-published study by a group of
researchers from Washington University in St. Louis.

The researchers decided to compare intelligence-test scores of black
and white students after reading the controversial book The Bell
Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life. In that
1994 book, Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray suggest that blacks
may be intellectually inferior to whites. As one piece of evidence, the
authors point to a gap between the scores of white and black high
school students on the Armed Forces Qualification Test. The test was
given periodically to nearly 13,000 nonmilitary students as part of the
National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a national study that has
tracked a group of students since 1979.

The Washington University researchers used the same data but
analyzed it differently. They looked at two samples of students: those
whose education ended at high school and those who went on to college.
In both groups, scores on the intelligence test increased more steeply
during the high school years for white students than they did for black
students. But a different pattern emerged for those who went on to
college.

Of that group, the black students improved their scores at a much
greater rate than white students. "The data suggest that at least one
major factor for that gap in intelligence scores is differences in
educational experiences," says Joel Myerson, a research professor in
psychology and the study's lead author. Black students tend to go to
poor-quality urban high schools, while white students are more likely
to attend better-off, suburban schools. But students' experiences at
the college level, Myerson explains, are less segregated. The study is
scheduled to appear this month in the journal Psychological
Science.

—Caroline Hendrie and Debra Viadero

Web Only

Notice: We recently upgraded our comments. (Learn more here.) If you are logged in as a subscriber or registered user and already have a Display Name on edweek.org, you can post comments. If you do not already have a Display Name, please create one here.

Ground Rules for Posting
We encourage lively debate, but please be respectful of others. Profanity and personal attacks are prohibited. By commenting, you are agreeing to abide by our user agreement.
All comments are public.